It's
Tomonobu Itagaki's swan song at
Tecmo, and maybe the last game in a series that goes back over 20 years. And in my mind, possibly the most loved ninja franchise to ever be created. It's "
Ninja Gaiden II," and these first '120 Seconds' is just the beginning of the battle.
The "Ninja Gaiden" games have traditionally been ridiculously hard; "Ninja Gaiden II" is no different. It's no-holds-barred from the very beginning.
After watching the first two minutes of gameplay, do you think you can master the ways of the ninja?
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Since the last entry..
*I got to the bottom of my new-game stack and reached into my old-games-I-need-to-mess-around-with pile. In there I found "Silent Hill 4," "Rogue Galaxy," and "Final Fantasy XII" all for the PS2.
I tried them each but don't plan on finishing any of them unless any reader of this diary can change my mind.
Read more...
Not long after waking up today, DHL showed up at my apartment with a package. DHL packages are usually from Microsoft. "Ninja Gaiden II" time, right?
My eye quickly noticed the DHL package was labeled "Ninja Garden II." Microsoft must have slipped up and sent me Tomonobu Itagaki's secret new side-project!
But, alas, it was just a typo. A boxed copy of "Ninja Gaiden II" was actually inside. That's not exactly a bad consolation prize, though.
Yesterday, I wrote about my hands-on time with the June Xbox 360 exclusive "Ninja Gaiden II" and did some pondering.
Since then, I heard back from a PR person working on the game who did some clarifying.
Two points:
- The "Kurosawa" black-and-white film grain filter I liked so much won't be called a "Kurosawa" filter in the final game. Look for that visuals option in the finished product, but not by that name.
- I speculated that an in-game movie screen in the game's first level would be able to play any gamer's captured video clips -- essentially tapping into that YouTube-style Ninja Cinema feature. It won't be able to do that. Ninja Cinema capture will be available, but won't sync to in-game screens. From the game's spokesperson: "The videos in these in-game videos are not interchangeable. They are currently being selected by [the game's developers] Team Ninja and the ones that we see will likely be replaced by generic trailers." Okay, Team Ninja, you better pick some cool clips.
Still seems like it may be a cool game, no?
[UPDATE: A spokesperson for the game has addressed a couple of the issues and features mentioned in my post. Read about it here.]
I have tried and failed to get very far in the Xbox and PS3 versions of "Ninja Gaiden."
People whose taste I respect love them. My interviews with people at Tecmo have convinced me that the games were developed with great care.
I just haven't been skilled enough -- or patient enough -- to appreciate them.
About a week ago, however, I had the opportunity to play the first level of the M-rated "Ninja Gaiden II," which will be released exclusively on the Xbox 360 on June 3. I played on the easiest setting, the Path of the Acolyte, fighting as ninja Ryu Hayabusa, in bloody combat against ninjas of the Spider Clan.
Here are some of the elements of the game that intrigued me: Read more...
Over the weekend I …
• Tried -- and failed -- to beat a game while wearing gloves. This failure occurred on Sunday while my wife was running a half-marathon around Central Park. During one such lap I sat on a bench, bundled up and determined to defeat the final boss of "Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword."
I had failed earlier in the weekend and now faced the added challenge of having to do this thing while wearing gloves.
I could have let my hands freeze that chilly Sunday morning. But I realized that I might be able to accomplish something special. Had I yet completed a game while made fat-fingered by handwear? No.
To conquer "Dragon Sword," I would wield the stylus while wearing wool gloves. The only button I would need to press was the shoulder button. The stylus fit fine in my enlargened hands. So I tried to beat this thing. So I failed a dozen times or more. This boss was tough. At home, in warmer confines and without gloves, I beat the boss on my first try.
• Reached a highly agitated state while playing "Kane & Lynch." Read more...
On Thursday I …
• I got past a tricky part of "Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword" by cheating. Forgot I had the power to create fire, which is needed to light some torches in the game's fourth chapter. (Hey, it's easy to forget these things when yu're playing a game in 30 minute sessions, divided by hours or days.) Need to let Diary reader Russ Frushtick know that I'm past it. But, Russ, my DS battery died while I was on the home. Kind of hard to get around that.
• Completed the Novus campaign in "Universe At War" on my still-alive launch 360. Began the Hierarchy campaign, which I must highly recommend. Old fulfilled real-time-strategy fantasy: commanding an army of alien soldiers to swarm an enemy base. New "UaW"-fulfilled real-time-strategy fantasy: commanding a massive walking alien base outfitted with half a dozen configurable turrets and troop-generators to trample enemy soldiers. Should let diary reader Hans Dannik know that the game does have some control bugs -- sometimes units don't respond to commands -- but the game has run smoothly enough in the heat of battle and is orchestrated by some efficiently-mapped controls. Definitely a rental, at least.
Next: A weekend with a big spring Xbox 360 game...
On Wednesday I …
• Experienced something extraordinary. I was playing “Professor Layton” on the subway. I had just finished the main storyline (people who felt the end of "Uncharted" was anti-climactic would hate the shockingly uninvolved almost-auto-pilot handling of "Layton"'s last hour). I was on my subway ride home, trying out some of the bonus puzzles I unlocked.
Halfway home, I noticed that the person sitting next to me was playing a DS. Mine was black. Hers was white. And on her screen…. she was also playing "Professor Layton"! This has never happened to me before. Another person, an Asian woman with dyed red hair, was playing the same game, right next to me. I tilted my DS toward her and said, "same game." She chuckled and went back to playing.
Then I began feeling weird. I wasn’t interested in solving these final "Layton" puzzles. They were harder variations of puzzles I had already solved. Figuring them out would require some tedious trial and error. I could pass. But, of all moments in my "Layton"-playing, I wasn't sure I could quit. Not with someone next to me playing the same game. Would she see me quit and think me a quitter? Would she not know that I had only cheated once in the game, that I was brainy enough to solve 120 puzzles all by myself? But why did this matter? Why should I force myself to keep playing -- just for pride?
Mild mental torment gave way to sanity. I turned off "Layton," probably forever. I inserted "Ninja Gaiden DS" and tried to figure my way out of a dead end in Chapter Four.
• At home, I played the disappointing fifth mission in "Universe At War" and then a really challenging, climactic one -- the sixth Novus mission. In this mission I use my Anime-inspired Novus robot warriors (who beam around the map on power lines!) to defend part of earth against two giant, walking mobile battle stations. The walkers are kicking my butt. But tonight I hope to kick theirs.
Next: Butt-kicking. As mentioned.
I met with "Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword" producer Yosuke Hayashi twice last Thursday: the first time at his hotel on Manhattan's east side to talk ninja gaming, the second to show him New York City as viewed from the 29th floor of the MTV News offices in Times Square. It was his first time in Manhattan.
At our first meeting he told me that New York smells just like Tokyo, a reference I'm still waging an internal debate about whether it was a compliment or complaint.
I invited him to come by the MTV offices later in the afternoon so he could see the city from above. From the 29th floor he looked out over the Times Square and then went to a westward-looking window and saw the Hudson and New Jersey. From each of the three sides of the building that I brought him to, he looked out of the windows and said "Sugoi!" That means he was impressed. More impressed with New York, I hope, then when I'd asked him what he thought of his trip to Manhattan during our first meeting. Through a translator, he had mustered: "Oh wow, there are hot dogs on every corner."
I'd like to think I taught him a little bit about the Big Apple. If so, maybe it was a fair trade? During our interview earlier in the day he taught me a few key things about "Ninja Gaiden" on the DS.
This is what I learned:
Read more...
On Thursday I…
• Got stuck in "Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword," even though I interviewed the game's producer in the middle of the day and got a tip from him. When I talked Yosuke Hayashi I was not yet stuck, but he still spontaneously offered me the tip to daze the floating eyeball enemies in the game by blowing into the DS mic. We laughed about how embarrassing this would be for me on the subway. Then, during my ride home, I got stuck. I'm in Chapter 4 and don't know where to go. So what did I do? I went into each of four or five rooms that I keep wandering through and tried blowing into the mic. Now this was embarrassing, because it was futile. So, since I am stuck, I went back to…
• One puzzle played in "Professor Layton," right before the end of my ride home. As I predicted earlier in the week, I would be returning to Layton and sticking with it to the end. Only 35 or so puzzles to go, I think.
• Found a famous Nintendo character in "Super Mario Galaxy" while hunting down another yellow star. This character now hangs out in the hub area, offering me tips about stars that I missed. But the tips are so vague as to not be helpful. So I missed a star in the Good Egg Galaxy, but in which part? Am I the only person who gets really stressed by games that indicate when you miss things but don't then guide you to the right places to search? I know questing is supposed to be fun, but I need a map of some sort.
• Ended my day playing games I can't talk about in a diary that might be read by the public -- though later this afternoon, my lips will be unsealed.
Next: I hope my weekend is filled with "Mario." It will also feature me trying to see if "Universe At War" is finally an RTS that actually displays okay on my standard definition set. I'm holding out hope, even though all others have failed this generation...
